Reviews

MX vs. ATV Untamed

Anyone who has spent any time playing an MX vs. ATV game knows that racing can become secondary to pulling off that big tsunami. The tricks in Untamed are well-rounded and easy to engage. Once you're in the air, you can pick tricks by moving the left stick up, down, left or right and tapping triangle (or Y) and circle (or B), or both, to create mad taunts, catwalks, seat grabbing Indian airs and more. We're a sucker for a good rigor mortis in Supercross, which yields big points and cheers from the stands, though you have to be careful; there's a 4 to 8 second penalty to pay if you bail (or if you careen off the track for more than 4 seconds). Still, we'd risk coming in third to diss the competition by stringing together a sweet sterilizer and nacnac on our way to pulling a huge ruler.

More Than a New Paint Job

In addition to the physics engine, the graphics are pretty good, though some of the events look better than others. For instance, the Supercross tracks and races look polished and the bikes look as clean and crisp as they perform. However, with Endurcross, Free-ride and Waypoint, this just isn't the case. On Endurocross, the tracks and environmental models are murky and on Free-ride and Waypoint, which are more open-world levels than tracks, there are tons of spots that look like they were graphically lifted right out of the PS2 version of Unleashed. The water and grass near the marshes on the Clearwater stage are an example of this.

As a whole, the rider models just aren't on the same level as what Evolution Studios achieved with MotorStorm, though there are moments in which the graphics are incredible -- the draw distances you'll see as you shotgun over a crest in Waypoint, for instance, is unlike what you're used to in a MX vs. ATV game. Also, how come the races in Waypoint don't take us all over the place through these huge environments Rainbow designed? Going in what amounts to a large oval across a map is dull, especially when there's so much to see. Take us through some caves or up a bunch of mountain trails and shoot us unexpectedly out through a waterfall over an Excite Truck-scale superjump. Do it.

Face-Off

It only makes sense that a game about rivalries has a great multiplayer component and Untamed is not wanting in that area. In addition to two player split-screen, you can play with up to twelve players online with Xbox 360 and eight with PS3 in an assortment of events taken straight out of the offline modes, with a few fun mini-games thrown in for good measure. The first two events, Quick Match and Custom Match, work almost exactly like their offline sound-alike modes, while the minigames are a whole new bag thanks to games like Graffiti, Tag and Snake. Snake, still our fave, is like playing a light cycle death race from "Tron" in which you box other riders in with a neon tail you leave behind.

Bottom line, though, MX vs. ATV Untamed isn't the greatest motocross game ever, but it's so much damn fun that you probably won't care. Note to Rainbow, though: fire that janky, poorly rendered blonde you have carrying the sign before races and insert some live-action shots of two beauties in your commercial. You'll sell way more games.